Hodgkin's fame came late in life. Born in 1932, by 1937 he knew he would be an artist, when he was taken to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. But it was nearly 40 years before he was given a one-man show in the UK. He is known for his stunning use of colour, a technique that he has made into a language of sorts.

His works have literal, descriptive titles - Dinner at Smith Square, On the Riviera - but to the glancing eye they are pleasing assemblages of shapes and colour. According to the artist, they show neither people nor places but feelings: "representational pictures of emotional situations".

His breakthrough came when he represented Britain at the Venice biennale in 1984, the year he was also nominated for the first Turner prize. It was won by Malcolm Morley, but Hodgkin carried it off the following year. In 1992 he was knighted. Now, he paints every day at his studio in Bloomsbury, sticking doggedly to his unfashionable medium of paint on wooden panels. His brilliant shades lend themselves to theatre, and lately he has done scenic design work for the Mark Morris Dance Company and the Royal Ballet, among others.